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No Limit Hold'Em
by BalugaWhale
(Micro/Small Stakes)

Coaching Kristy: Episode One

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Coaching Kristy: Episode One by BalugaWhale

BalugaWhale and Kristy kick off their new partnership by reviewing a bit of what they have already accomplished and then reviewing some of Kristy's play at 6max.

About Coaching Kristy

Pokernews' crack reporting ace Kristy Arnett powers up with poker training from our friends at DeucesCracked! Watch as Kristy works through BalugaWhale's coaching program, learning how to crush online No Limit cash games in the process.

Poemmel

Don't you think there is more merit in just c/folding than in cbetting?Basically his whole range for calling a 3bet in position has hit this board.

SC stuff has a pair with the 9 or a flushdraw or at least a gutshot and isn't folding, most broadways have hit a pair or at a gutshot and AK is probably not folding with 2 overcards.So the only hands we might fold him off are AT/AJ (without a flushdraw) and small pocket pairs.

So he isn't folding to a cbet that often (prolly not often enough to make it profitable) and if we get called we are oop with a crappy hand.

We might still have the best hand when called but we never get our A high to showdown and be good, cause he will stab with something like his KJ if he doesn't hit either on the turn or the river a good percentage of the time.And our outs aren't that great, cause he might have better Ax in his range plus the A of spades sucks (the only way a 6 might help us is if he has AK, we turn or river the 6 and he checks it down).

And barreling such a board on 50NL in a 3bet pot isn't going to be profitable.

Poemmel

Many players are just in the mood to "fold and wait for a better spot" against a fish, especially on small and micro stakes.They don't want to push the smaller edges and risk to get the fish stacked by someone else.Very good picture to have in your mind with the timer.

Poemmel

I would 3bet bigger with the ATo, cause we are oop and our plan is to 3bet, get called a lot and then fold him out with a cbet/get value if we hit and this plan earns us more money if we make it 5,50$ pre, cause we can collect more dead money postflop now and it's easier to get money in if we valuebet.

Poemmel

same here.you shouldn't just always hit pot, kristy.especially not when he is minraising.he is getting a very good price on calling in position and with us just 3betting to 6BB the stack to pot ratio isn't that small as it is normally in 3bet pots so his positional advantage is bigger.

Poemmel

I think I'd rather bomb the flop and not bet 3/4 and then bomb the turn, cause of 3 reasons.1. people are more likely to call flop cbets than 2 barrels2. a little bit bigger flop bet leads to a much bigger river bet3. he is a fish and doesn't think about betsizing, so we can make it as big as possible

Think of that:Pot is 5$.- We bet 3,5$, he calls, potsize on the turn: 11$, now we bet 11$, potsize on the river: 33$, now we can bet like 30$ and have a pot of 93$ if he calls.- We bet 5$ on the flop, potsize on the turn: 15$, we bet 14$, potsize on the river: 43, now we can bet 40$ and have a pot of 123$.So we lose roughly 30BB of value if he calls us down with whatever he has, just because we bet 3BB less on the flop

eraser

In the 99 hand when we were donked on Qxx, you said you would check the turn if we didnt spike our set. How would you play the river if he bets into us? I assume you know how you are going to play since you said you can play "perfect"

The last hand with K9dd on 553 which wasnt discussed, how much do you think is a good betsize on the river with the flush? Starting with 100BB I would usually overbet jam here, but since we are deep I have no clue.

Joe Tall

In the 99 hand when we were donked on Qxx, you said you would check the turn if we didnt spike our set. How would you play the river if he bets into us? I assume you know how you are going to play since you said you can play "perfect"

The last hand with K9dd on 553 which wasnt discussed, how much do you think is a good betsize on the river with the flush? Starting with 100BB I would usually overbet jam here, but since we are deep I have no clue.

eraser

We get donked into on Q86r with 99, and you said you raise for value, but also because you can play perfectly on the rest of the streets.
Are you basically valuebetting on the turn if you don't get overcarded? Wouldn't you put him on a Queen if he calls your raise? How about the river?
I often have trouble when people donk and call my raise. I find it hard to put people on ranges, because everyone's donking range seems very unique.

eraser

The last hand with K9dd on 553 which wasnt discussed, how much do you think is a good betsize on the river with the flush?
Starting with 100BB I would usually overbet jam here, but since we are deep I have no clue.

blah234

great video, I can always learn something new from listening to BalugaWhale talk.

Kristy has defintely been taught by BW in that she raises like K5s from the CO and iso raise button limp in blinds with Axo etc. Those type of plays I've only seen from coaching videos but haven't heard any coach recommend to microstake players. Do you guys think its profitable to make these kind of plays as a beginner?

BalugaWhale

great video, I can always learn something new from listening to BalugaWhale talk.

Kristy has defintely been taught by BW in that she raises like K5s from the CO and iso raise button limp in blinds with Axo etc. Those type of plays I've only seen from coaching videos but haven't heard any coach recommend to microstake players. Do you guys think its profitable to make these kind of plays as a beginner?

I think they're profitable provided that you follow the simple postflop rules of playing against passive players.

williep1234

This was possibly the best microstakes video i've ever seen. The concepts boiled down very simply, and having Kristy explain her thought processes as recently taught to her by baluga was extremely helpful.

I think i've been overthinking micro stakes so this video will help my game a ton. Can't wait to watch the rest.

ricky kools

Wreck

Great video, really interesting and informative. A couple of times "the process" to go through is mentioned by both Kirsty and BalugaWhale without it every being fully explained, would it be possible to get a quick explanation?

Mykill

Great video, really interesting and informative. A couple of times "the process" to go through is mentioned by both Kirsty and BalugaWhale without it every being fully explained, would it be possible to get a quick explanation?

Snaptress

HEY Everyone! Kristy here. I'm so nervous/excited for everyone to watch this series! I haven't had a chance to rewatch it or go over everyone's comments yet, but I'm definitely going to do that later tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know I posted a blog about this just now! http://www.deucescracked.com/blogs/snaptress/18541-And-It-Begins-

JoeConst17

I was going to watch the whole thing and ask some questions..and I probably will ask a few more but I stopped here because I was laughing so hard at Baluga's perception of playing poker for the first time haha! Ooo I've got an Acee and Jackk..that's pretty damn goooddd....ill raise it up...oh he raisess...result! I'm all in! oh he has two Kings...I'm still winning right?

Anyway the question haha...going back to the JJ hand earlier when Kristy bets the flop and turn for the value which is obviously perfect...but when the K comes off on the river are you 100% comfortable betting for value? I'm like...shit...I'll check and hope he checks...if he bets I might call a small bet...and I forget the board as I type but I'm thinking what is he actually going to call with here apart from a King..and there might have been two 10s on the board? I forget..but you get my point..

Great vid so far btw! Always great to see Baluga micro vids...and Kristy seems to have nailed the fundamentals after the coaching..

QuadDeuces

HEY Everyone! Kristy here. I'm so nervous/excited for everyone to watch this series! I haven't had a chance to rewatch it or go over everyone's comments yet, but I'm definitely going to do that later tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know I posted a blog about this just now!
http://www.deucescracked.com/blogs/snaptress/18541-And-It-Begins-

Welcome to DC Snaptress! It's always a lot easier for the Coach so good luck refining "the process" at the tables.

iceboxz

This video was hugely beneficial. I hope Baluga continues to ask Kristy the reasons why she did something, and also continues to ask her to define integral concepts e.g. what value betting means and how it relates to her c-betting..

thisfool

In the 77 hand, when the villain 3bet vs a minraise and we cold called, then he checked on AK4, isn't it worth a bet a lot of the time? IMO it seems like he would be playing air a lot more than he would be playing monsters this way. Plus our cold call pre IP looks suspicious to him.

It just seems like I've seen tons of check-folds from villains in this spot, especially given that he only potted the minraise for $3.75 total (correct?) rather than raising higher for value.

Kodiak5500

With the 77 on the bottom right, why is it bad to flat Pre flop? I would call there and maybe this is a leak. Going by the 10-20 rule, we are getting 1-10 or better to set mine. When would we call Pre with pockets and when do we fold? I assume is has to do with the amount of people in the hand?

zenben

Really loved this vid- Kristy, you're a great student, and BW does an awesome job of prompting you to think/talk through "the process" and you verbalize everything very well. I'm kind of glad you made new videos AFTER having lessons, as Kristy is likely a much more active participant in explaining her logic behind each play.

One nit-picky critique I have for future vids if they are not already recorded would be having Baluga in charge of the video-this is nothing against Kristy at all, (you obv know how to work the replayer) but simply because BW leads the "conversation," the video would run more smoothly if he was the one pausing/rewinding as needed rather than telling Kristy "stop the tape/rewind to this/that." There was at least one instance toward the end of the vid where you discussed 2 hands that had just occurred on different tables without replaying them during/before your discussion. Since I'm a visual learner, I needed to manually rewind the vid, then FF to the audio for each street to really process the great info in your conversation.

So if possible, if 2 hands that deserve a comment happen simultaneously, after reviewing the first, be sure to return to the second hand and replay it before/while discussing it.

Thanks for all your hard work! This is building up to be an epic series!

Falker34

Great video. Really like the progression with the thought process of a new player. The most important concept used is actually not a poker one. It is the concept that you need to think through every decision. It is by far the most difficult thing for new players to grasp and experienced players to maintain during tough sessions.

Bennobal

Here at this point w/ the 77 hand, Baluga is explaining something about "when we are more comfortable knowing the min-raiser is coming along its less bad, but if we don't..." and then he stops and discusses the flop action. I am curious to the rest of the explanation preflop.

BigJoeJones

When analyzing the hand at the 46:00 mark, where Kristy essentially shoves with second pair + nfd, you mention that we want to get to showdown when it's unlikely that our hand is going to get outdrawn on. We are in position here so we can check back and see a free card and do that. How about spots where we are OOP? I know we wouldn't be calling a 3b OOP with this hand etc, but how about spots where you have a hand that has showdown value, you are OOP and it is unlikely you will get outdrawn? I struggle with turn spots like this when I'm OOP with similar hands.

Por2ugeeguy

Great Video, I've been autopiloting unknowingly for the last 6 months, and this video really gave that "eye opener" moment and to go back to basics and think through hands. My win rate has multiplied in such a short term just by going through the "process," going through the variables: why to bet, who I'm playing, how many players in pot, etc.

What is getting me hooked is that you don't have to memorize how to play certain hands but rather a "process." Great stuff, also it has reduced my tilting. I can now lose and actually feel good, since I know I made the right decision due to the "process." I also like that there are many plays that can be made, as long as there is an explanation through the process it most of the time is a "good" play since your forcing yourself to think of each hand individually. Great stuff and I look for more.

LuckyStraights

The guy is a 14/10 nitbox. I don't see him showing up here with KJs or KQs very often. Anyone agree? Even if he did have these hands, there is a good chance he'd blindly raise the flop with them and then I also don't believe he can bluff the river. We're UTG, bet two streets into him, and he's crazy enough to bluff us on the river? Versus looser players the play works brilliantly, but this guy is tight and not at all the bluffy player type we're looking for here. He's also not 100% likely to call PREFLOP with KJs or even AJs vs our UTG. In the heat of the moment, I think we overlook that the player is so tight.

Other draws are somewhat scarcer and would have to be suited connectors, which in this case we know are one combo each and he will have many more pairs than sc's in this spot.

I like c/c this turn because we allow him to bet all his possible draws, but we also allow him to bet lower pocket pairs as well (22-44 is very likely floating the flop) which gives us like 18 combos of hands that will fold to a turn bet. I would c/f river vs this tight player as well.

soinana

Anyway the question haha...going back to the JJ hand earlier when Kristy bets the flop and turn for the value which is obviously perfect...but when the K comes off on the river are you 100% comfortable betting for value? I'm like...shit...I'll check and hope he checks...if he bets I might call a small bet...and I forget the board as I type but I'm thinking what is he actually going to call with here apart from a King..and there might have been two 10s on the board? I forget..but you get my point..

I would agree with this. The river is a clear check. Does anyone else see it differently?

jerrynmgn

You say that we can bet to hope that he can fold his equity share with something like AJ.
Because yout think that we can let him fold this is this also a spot to bluf with say KQs?
Or is that a other story?

getdown

What do you do if you're in his shoes? If you donk (would you? and why?). Do you shove for value vs what... QJ? TT/JJ? Seems like a really awkward place to be from his perspective because if he doesn't shove he's going to give cards to an aggressive-good player that might be raising to get cards or get to showdown, however if you shove you only get called by better.

Although, the shove does fold out cards that have equity against us (draws, pairs, AK/Ax).

I was just thinking, what would I do there and I realized that I would probably c/r the likely cbet that was coming and avoid this whole situation. Interesting. If she checks behind and we somehow make it to the river, well I'm getting pretty owned.

K9 jones

The strategy for playing bad passive players is betting for value until you get raised. The strategy for playing bad aggressive players is also stated as betting for value. I didn't catch what the differences were between the two. Is it as simple as not folding to raises from bad aggressive players. Can anybody clue me in on what Baluga has to say here. If it is covered in a future video, just point me there.

Code

You talked about taking alot of Ax hands and 3betting them to death at the start of the session, because people will usually either fold pre or fold to a cbet on the flop. Do you have any experince with this strategy at lower stakes, or is this something you should only apply at 50nl and higher?

iluv68

player types remain the same. so, learning how to beat bad-aggro and bad-passive remains the same.

good aggressive players are trying to learn to play rock paper scissors. If you can learn what they're throwing (i.e. rock), and if you know what the response is (i.e. paper), than you can beat them.

so, yes, imo.

Andrew

Went from 20nl to 100nl to bust

Playing 10nl on better site and building bankroll back up - currently up 7BI in 3k hands running 3BI below EV, I can attest this content is still VERY relevant to the smallest stakes - 50nl on any site

Denman

I find the 3b strategy to be quite interesting in these videos. Is it still fine to be 3bing with this regularity and with these hands? I've seen people talk about how we use a fairly ranged merge of 3b'ing rather than a completely polarised one. Is it good to be 3b'ing hands like Ace rag etc rather than like SC type hands and such?

sohoskiracer

I'm curious as to why were inclined to cbet that flop necessarily 3-ways, 2-ways its definitely a cbet imo, but hands like this have presented a problem for me as they accidentaly force villains to play with a merged range.

What I mean by this is (and im an agro agro player so it may be just b/c of my image) when I cbet this board I expect to get called at least some of the time by pocket pairs, by all Kx and even fish realize raising an Ax there is pretty bad since they hit the deck in the face so they call with that as well. 2-ways we can expect them to fold often enough that its immediately profitable to cbet, but 3-way our P(all fold) seems significantly enough decreased that its not immediately profitable to cbet.

That said, if it is not immediately profitable to c-bet b/c alot of villains play as above we are now forced to decide whether to two barrel, which is entirely dependent on villain type. If the villain is folding their pocket pairs and QJs w/ backdoor IP etc on flop then (w/o running a calc) 2barrelling is just burning money but a flop bet is good. If villain is calling with those things on flop along with their Ax and Kx then I expect a fold on turn (or a raise if they hit their draw bluff outs or draw somewhere around 15% of the time if thats in their range at all...and probably flatting their Ax still and maybe folding some Kx but i wouldnt count on it)...this would make cbetting flop small and 2barreling turn good.

Problem is I find it inexorably difficult to differentiate these two types of players without an extensive history and at small stakes there are a whole variety of ranges for that spot, not just the extremes above, leading to the fact that just cbetting flop vs the looser player is not profitable b/c with 3 players that means our P(all fold flop) is just too low. And if they're the tighter type of players it is burning money not to cbet flop, but bet flop bet turn is just so terrible vs their range it's worse than not cbetting flop!

Result is a decision under uncertainty where we are prone to making costly mistakes, which, may be an error in my ability to discern opponent types, but is an error I would rather avoid by c/fing vs unknown fish...these specific fish may be different considering how agro btn is (I'd expect him to raise his Ax and Kx almost...making our turn play or lack thereof super easy)

All that said I think if we cbet there it is mandatory we cbet our entire range on the small side, btwn 1/3 - 1/2 pot. It increases the effectiveness of our cbet by decreasing the P(all fold flop) necessary, and makes it more likely our opponents call with a wider range but we're still folding out total air (allowing us to cbet turn a larger % pot but smaller $ figure vs a wider range, thus increasing our fold equity and minimizing risk, and only continue on river to a now big pot w/ the nuts). If I have history its this line I'm taking vs nearly all opponents who aren't complete donks I can value town blind.

BalugaWhale

I'm curious as to why were inclined to cbet that flop necessarily 3-ways, 2-ways its definitely a cbet imo, but hands like this have presented a problem for me as they accidentaly force villains to play with a merged range.

What I mean by this is (and im an agro agro player so it may be just b/c of my image) when I cbet this board I expect to get called at least some of the time by pocket pairs, by all Kx and even fish realize raising an Ax there is pretty bad since they hit the deck in the face so they call with that as well. 2-ways we can expect them to fold often enough that its immediately profitable to cbet, but 3-way our P(all fold) seems significantly enough decreased that its not immediately profitable to cbet.

That said, if it is not immediately profitable to c-bet b/c alot of villains play as above we are now forced to decide whether to two barrel, which is entirely dependent on villain type. If the villain is folding their pocket pairs and QJs w/ backdoor IP etc on flop then (w/o running a calc) 2barrelling is just burning money but a flop bet is good. If villain is calling with those things on flop along with their Ax and Kx then I expect a fold on turn (or a raise if they hit their draw bluff outs or draw somewhere around 15% of the time if thats in their range at all...and probably flatting their Ax still and maybe folding some Kx but i wouldnt count on it)...this would make cbetting flop small and 2barreling turn good.

Problem is I find it inexorably difficult to differentiate these two types of players without an extensive history and at small stakes there are a whole variety of ranges for that spot, not just the extremes above, leading to the fact that just cbetting flop vs the looser player is not profitable b/c with 3 players that means our P(all fold flop) is just too low. And if they're the tighter type of players it is burning money not to cbet flop, but bet flop bet turn is just so terrible vs their range it's worse than not cbetting flop!

Result is a decision under uncertainty where we are prone to making costly mistakes, which, may be an error in my ability to discern opponent types, but is an error I would rather avoid by c/fing vs unknown fish...these specific fish may be different considering how agro btn is (I'd expect him to raise his Ax and Kx almost...making our turn play or lack thereof super easy)

All that said I think if we cbet there it is mandatory we cbet our entire range on the small side, btwn 1/3 - 1/2 pot. It increases the effectiveness of our cbet by decreasing the P(all fold flop) necessary, and makes it more likely our opponents call with a wider range but we're still folding out total air (allowing us to cbet turn a larger % pot but smaller $ figure vs a wider range, thus increasing our fold equity and minimizing risk, and only continue on river to a now big pot w/ the nuts). If I have history its this line I'm taking vs nearly all opponents who aren't complete donks I can value town blind.

you can always c-bet smaller to improve your odds, especially if you think your opponents fold the same things to smaller sizes (i.e. 87s or 33).

ChrisBowling

wouldnt the presence of the bad aggro on our left on the AAK w Q9s and it being 3-way be enough reason not to C-bet? Passive players like to play Aces, and bad aggro guy is going to be spewing off often.

process when deciding whether or not to bet or raise:1) am I value betting or bluffing?2) if value betting, which worse hands call or raise?3) if bluffing, do I have PE + FE?

Great coach, and must say Kristy is a sharp student too, showing awareness of what was it she learned that helped her game and how. I find the process interesting to further my learning in poker as it forces you to think things out and pay attention to the dynamics although I seem to be quite bad at cash online. There's a lot to learn in this video, and you sure need to watch it at least twice.

If the villain is passive, then it's a value bet and if he is an aggressive, then it could additionally be a bluff, did I get this correctly?

I don't understand "3) value hands worse vs value hands better, count up total bluff hands" - is this the evaluation of combos so as to estimate equity?

And moreover, in the second process, Question 2. is to make sure we have worse hands which can tag along with our bet otherwise we cannot really 'value bet', right?

Not sure I understand the interesting remark about relative value at the end.

muzza

"can we get more value now or more value later" could you explain what hands get more value now and what hands get more value later. Also with what hands are we looking to get more players in the pot as opposed to isolating one player. This part was around when rossilito hit the straight on the flop